The Indie 500 takes privacy seriously and is committed to handling users' personal information responsibly. This policy outlines the collection and handling of personal information on this website (www.theindie500.com) and in any communication issued by the tournament organizers. Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have regarding this Privacy Policy.

Collection of Information

The Indie 500 collects only personal information which is voluntarily provided by users at the time that they register for tournament participation (in either the solve-at-home or in-person division) or make any other purchase on The Indie 500 website.

Email

Email addresses provided to The Indie 500 will never be shared with anyone, ever, for any reason, without written permission from the user. The only exception to this is if disclosure of a user's personal information is required by law and specifically requested by subpoena or other judicial order.

Any emails sent by The Indie 500 to addresses provided by site users and tournament registrants will be related to The Indie 500 tournament and/or products.

At any time, a user may request to stop receiving email communication from The Indie 500. If such a request is received, that user's email address will be removed from The Indie 500's server and contact list and they will not be contacted again. This will not affect their registration in the tournament, but may result in products for which they have paid or to which they are otherwise entitled not being delivered.

Payments

All online payments and financial transactions are handled by PayPal and are bound by PayPal's privacy policy. The Indie 500 has no way to view or share credit card or financial information collected by PayPal.

Notifications are sent from PayPal to The Indie 500 to confirm payment and are a necessary part of the online payment process used by The Indie 500. These notifications are covered by PayPal's privacy policy and may contain a user's name and/or mailing address and/or email address. This information is not stored on The Indie 500 server and will never be shared or published. The Indie 500 will not mail anything to any mailing address provided through any notification from PayPal unless specifically requested in writing or as part of an online order placed by the user. The Indie 500 will only send emails to an address provided through notifications from PayPal in cases where that same email address has been provided by the user to a registration or order form on The Indie 500 website.

Standings, Attendance, and Participation

The first and last names provided by players registered for either the in-person or at-home version of The Indie 500 crossword tournament may be made publicly available on The Indie 500 website, in the form of tournament standings and player statistics. The names of players who win awards may also be shared on our website and on social media, as part of congratulatory messages, results announcements, or recordkeeping efforts. While players are encouraged to provide the name they typically use, they may provide a different name so long as it is not intended to offend or disparage others, subject to the discretion of the tournament directors. None of the personal information collected as part of the payment process will ever be shared or published online.

For promotional purposes, photographs from the tournament may be shared online. However, we will not associate names with the images without consent and we will remove an image upon request of any person in that image. Unfortunately, we are not able to monitor or control the posting or sharing of photographs or other media done by individuals not involved with The Indie 500.

Consent

By participating in The Indie 500 tournament, purchasing any products sold on The Indie 500 website, or otherwise providing any information to The Indie 500 via www.theindie500.com or through correspondence, you consent to this Privacy Policy.

You may contact us at any time at xwordtournament@gmail.com to see what data we have about you, if any, and to request a modification to or the deletion of any data we may have about you. Note that if you are registered for an upcoming tournament or have yet to receive goods or services for which you have paid, immediate removal of your personal information from our server may nullify your registration or purchase order and we cannot guarantee a refund of payment. Furthermore, out of respect for the efforts of other players and in order to maintain the integrity of the tournament, overall standings and statistics and individual puzzle results and scores may not be changed or removed. If you do not wish to have your name and results published, you must elect to have your information completely removed from The Indie 500 server and database. In such cases, your tournament scores and performance data may still be retained and displayed, though not explicitly linked to you or any personal information about you.